On to the BIG Casino in the sky. While it is always sad to see one of the grand dames of Las Vegas bite the dust, we must remember. Without their demise we would not have Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Venetian, Wynn Las Vegas, Aladdin (again), and a giant parking lot where the Landmark stood.

• Sand Dunes In Vegas
• Dunes Casino Las Vegas Collectables
• Dunes Vegas

They say that when Las Vegas does something, it does it huge. Massive casinos, massive hotels, huge bets, huge parties, birthday cakes the size of a warehouse. Not to be satisfied with a simple wreckingball, Las Vegas has turned the destruction of its casinos into full fledged entertainment featuring fireworks, jetfuel explosions, bomb blasts and cannon fire.

What a better way to send off an old friend than with a blowout - literally. We present to you some miniature video captures of Vegas casino implosions below.

Click the photo to start the video. Implosion of the Aladdin Aladdin is one of the few casinos to be imploded then rebuilt with the same name. Opened April 1, 1966 (after a few years at the Tally Ho) the venerable Aladdin was imploded April 27, 1998, 32 years (almost to the day) since its opening. Implosion of the Dunes The Dunes, along with the Sands and the Desert Inn were the three kings of the Las Vegas strip from the 1940s & 50s until they each met their demise in the 1990s. The Dunes was fired upon by the TI adjacent Brittania causing the Dunes to become engulfed in flames and come crashing to the earth. From the ashes rose Bellagio which opened in 1998. Implosion of the Hacienda The Hacienda was the southernmost resort on the Las Vegas Strip standing as gatekeeper into Vegas for 30+ years.

I was purchased by Circus-Circus in 1995 and imploded to make way for Mandalay Bay in a nationally televised event on December 31, 1996. Implosion of the Landmark Famous for its appearance in Mars Attacks, the International Hotel and Casino was built by Howard Hughes in the late 1960s in a competition with Kirk Kerkorian's neighboring International Hotel (Now the Las Vegas Hilton). The Landmark with its iconic observation deck was imploded on November 7, 1995 Implosion of El Rancho The second El Rancho on the Strip (the first was in 1960) stood on the grounds of the historic Silver Bird and Thunderbird casinos. It stood vacant on the strip for many years with a sorry marquee that pronounced the pending opening of 'Countryland'. Countryland never came to be as El Rancho was imploded October 3, 2000.

Can i just buy powerpoint for mac. Turnberry Estates and the coming Fontainebleau Casino sit on the land where the second El Rancho once stood. Implosion of the Sands After 44 years anchoring the Las Vegas Strip and inventing Las Vegas Cool with it's magical 'Summits' featuring The Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, the Sands was imploded to make way for Venetian on November 26, 1996 Implosion of the Stardust The Stardust anchored the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip for nearly 50 years from its opening in 1958 until its closure and implosion on March 13, 2007. Stardust will be replaced by a new mega-resort called. Implosion of the Boardwalk The Boardwalk Hotel and casino opened in 1969 as a Holiday Inn Casino. It skimmed along as a second (or third) tier property until it was closed in January 2006 and imploded on May 9, 2006. City Center is currently being built where Boardwalk once was.

Implosion of Castaways Castaways was a locals casino on the outskirts of downtown, it was imploded with little fanfare in 2006. This is not the Castaways that was on the Strip. Implosion of New Frontier The venerable New Frontier's valiant twenty year attempt at making progress stop on the Las Vegas Strip has finally come to a close with it's implosion this morning at 2:34am PST.

The building that housed the Strip's only mechanical bull came crashing down in a heap of yee haws and cheers from the punters out in the chilly Las Vegas morning.

Sand Dunes In Vegas

One of the venerated original properties associated with the, the Dunes Hotel opened during a mid-1950s casino building boom, and soon became one of its casualties. Over the next four decades, the controversial Dunes would survive a succession of owners, allegations of hidden, and marginal profits before it was destroyed to make way for several Las Vegas resorts including the $2 billion Bellagio Hotel. Originally designed with an Arabian Desert theme, the Dunes was the creation of partners Alfred Gottesman, a former movie theater chain owner; Joe Sullivan, a restaurant owner from Providence, Rhode Island, and Bob Rice, a costume jewelry maker from Beverly Hills. Sullivan was later reputed to be a 'front man' whose cash investment actually came from Ray Patriarca, the head of a Rhode Island crime family who expected to reap under-the-table profits from his hidden interest in the casino. Built at a cost of $3.5 million on the southwestern corner of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, the Dunes debuted on May 23, 1955, just three weeks after the had opened several blocks north and only three days before the off-Strip. At the time, the Dunes, nicknamed 'The Miracle in the Desert,' was the tenth resort on the Strip and located the farthest south, making it the first hotel-casino seen by those arriving by car from Southern California.

The Dunes partners had succeeded in hiring away executives and managers from properties in Miami, Los Angeles, and the nearby. Before opening day, they announced their ambitious expansion plans for 500 more guest rooms, a shopping center, and winter houses on the grounds. Despite a celebrity-filled debut and plenty of publicity, the Dunes failed within a year, a victim of the overbuilding of resorts on the Strip.

Dunes Casino Las Vegas Collectables

The casino itself was forced to close, and the place became what amounted to a motel. It was sold in 1956 to James 'Jake'Gottlieb, whose Chicago freight company had received a business loan from the pension fund controlled by corrupt labor boss James 'Jimmy' Hoffa. Gottlieb, who allegedly had ties to organized crime figures in Chicago, sold a small interest in the hotel to a fellow Chicagoan, Major A.

Dunes Vegas

The Teamsters pension fund, which Hoffa used to help bankroll other Las Vegas casinos, loaned Gottlieb and Riddle $4 million in 1958. By 1965, the Dunes had an 18-hole golf course and 800 new guest rooms, including a 24-story hotel tower. In the 1980s, the aging Dunes struggled to stay open.

Its new operator was Morris Shenker, the elderly, one-time lawyer for Jimmy Hoffa. The Teamsters Central States Pension Fund loaned Shenker the money he needed to gain control of the Dunes. Federal investigators believed Shenker had a longstanding direct relationship to the Chicago mob. The Dunes, now nearly thirty years old and in need of renovation, was in decline and in debt. Shenker's group was forced to file for federal bankruptcy protection from creditors, and the resort was sold to wealthy Japanese businessman, Masao Nangaku, who was unsuccessful in his attempts to revive the aging property.

Las Vegas casino owner purchased the Dunes in 1992. Wynn had the old hotel imploded on national television—one tower in 1993 and the other in 1994. Today, the Monte Carlo Hotel, the New York-New York Hotel, and the Bellagio occupy the one-time Dunes hotel site.